1980 in American television

For the American TV schedule, see: 1980-81 American network television schedule.

The year 1980 involved some significant events. Below is a list of television-related events in the United States.

Events

Date Event
January 25 Black Entertainment Television launches in the United States as a block of programming on the Nickelodeon TV Network; it won't be until 1983 that BET becomes a full-fledged channel.
February 1 After 29 years on the air, the soap opera Love of Life airs its last episode on CBS.
February 3 Bob Hope's Overseas Christmas Tours, a two-part six-hour retrospective of Bob Hope's more than 30 years of entertaining at military bases and hospitals in the U.S. and abroad, airs on NBC.
February 14 Walter Cronkite announces his retirement from the CBS Evening News, which takes effect in March 1981.
March 16 The first regularly scheduled use of closed captioning on American network television occurs, with captions of spoken dialogue added to programming received through a decoding unit attached to a standard TV set.[1]
March 21 On the season finale of Dallas, J. R. Ewing is shot by an unseen assailant, leading to the catchphrase "Who shot J.R.?".
April 7 The Oldest Living Graduate, a live drama on NBC, is broadcast; the network hadn't aired a program like it since 1962. The production is aired from Southern Methodist University and stars Henry Fonda, George Grizzard, and Cloris Leachman.
April 29 The NFL Draft is televised for the first time on ESPN.
May 6 Ron Howard and Donny Most leave the cast of Happy Days as regulars, following the episode "Ralph's Family Problem". When Happy Days returns in the fall, Henry Winkler is given top billing in the opening credits.
May 24 The Not Ready For Prime Time Players appear in their final episode on NBC's Saturday Night Live, after five seasons.
June 1 The Cable News Network (CNN) begins broadcasting.
June 20 Hollywood Squares presents its 3,536th and final network telecast on NBC, ending a 14-year daytime run; it remains the second-longest-running daytime game show in the network's history, behind the original 1958–73 run of Concentration. Two other NBC game shows, High Rollers and Chain Reaction, end their runs on this date as well.
June 23 The David Letterman Show debuts on NBC. Letterman's humor does not go over well with a morning audience, and the show is canceled in October. Letterman would stay at NBC and go on to host a late night show on the network two years later.
June 30 The ABC game show Family Feud moves from airing at 11:30 am ET to 12:00 noon. It is one of the few network daytime shows to survive at noon, a time slot where many stations preempt network fare for local news broadcasts.
July 4 The Screen Actors Guild and AFTRA launch a three-month strike against television and movie studios. The strike greatly delays US networks' fall seasons (some shows don't see their fall debuts until late October or November, if not much later), and prompts a union boycott of the 1980 Emmy Awards in September. The unions would ratify a new deal on October 25 to officially end the strike.
August 1 Ending a failed experiment, the soap opera Another World airs its last regularly scheduled ninety-minute episode. The show returns to sixty minutes on August 4, allowing room for a spin-off, Texas, based around Beverlee Mckinsey's Another World character, Iris Cory Carrington.
The 24/7 cable movie network Cinemax launches.
November 2 Archie Bunker's Place begins its season with the episode "Edith's Death", in which Archie Bunker grieves over the death of wife Edith (prompted by Jean Stapleton's departure from the series). Carroll O'Connor's performance in this episode earns him a Peabody Award.
November 15 Saturday Night Live starts its new season with a new cast and new writers under the reins of new Executive Producer Jean Doumanian.
November 18 Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters (Barbara, Louise and Irlene Mandrell) makes its debut on NBC, with a special guest appearance by Dolly Parton. The show was the last variety show on network TV with over 40 million viewers.
November 21 The mystery of "Who Shot J.R.?" is solved on Dallas; the revelation that Sue Ellen's sister Kristin (played by Mary Crosby) did the deed) draws a record number of viewers.
November 22 Eddie Murphy makes his first Saturday Night Live appearance, appearing in a non-speaking role in the sketch "In Search Of The Negro Republican".
December 8 Howard Cosell announces the murder of former Beatle John Lennon in the closing seconds of a Monday Night Football game. An NBC bulletin, reporting the murder of Lennon, interrupts The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
December 30 After 26 years on the air, 20 of which were on NBC, the network announces that the long-running anthology Disney's Wonderful World will not be on its fall 1981 schedule; the show will, however, be picked up by CBS.

Programs

Debuts

Date Show Network
January 6 Skag NBC
January 14 3-2-1 Contact PBS
January 22 Goodtime Girls ABC
January 27 Galactica 1980
February 5 Mystery! PBS
March 1 Pink Lady NBC
March 3 That's Incredible! ABC
March 4 The Big Show NBC
March 5 Beyond Westworld CBS
March 11 United States NBC
March 15 Sanford
March 22 Me and Maxx
The Tim Conway Show CBS
March 24 Flo
The Stockard Channing Show
April 11 Fridays ABC
May 5 America's Top 10 Syndication
June 1 Moneyline CNN
June 26 Nobody's Perfect ABC
August 4 Texas NBC
August 9 That's My Line CBS
August 21 Games People Play NBC
September 6 Livewire Nickelodeon
September 13 The Lone Ranger ABC
Solid Gold Syndication
September 28 Cosmos PBS
October 4 Heathcliff ABC
Thundarr the Barbarian
October 27 Blockbusters NBC
Gambit
Ladies' Man CBS
October 30 It's a Living ABC
October 31 I'm a Big Girl Now
November 11 Too Close for Comfort
November 12 Enos CBS
November 18 Barbara Mandrell & the Mandrell Sisters NBC
November 27 Bosom Buddies ABC
November 29 Breaking Away
December 6 Freebie and the Bean CBS
Secrets of Midland Heights
December 10 Number 96
December 11 Magnum, P.I.

Ending this year

Date Show Debut
January 3 Spider-Woman 1979
February 1 Love of Life 1951
March 26 The Ultraman 1979
April 26 Hawaii Five-O 1968
April 30 Hello, Larry 1979
June 20 Chain Reaction 1980
High Rollers 1974
Hollywood Squares 1966
June 27 The $20,000 Pyramid 1973
July 25 The Rockford Files 1974
August 28 Nobody's Perfect 1980
September 4 Barnaby Jones 1973
October 23 Angie 1979
Armchair Thriller 1978
Dinah! 1974
Magpie 1968

Made-for-TV movies and miniseries

Title
Beulah Land
The Dream Merchants
The Return of the King
Shogun

Births

Date Name Notability
January 30 Wilmer Valderrama Actor (That '70s Show)
February 12 Christina Ricci Actress
March 7 Laura Prepon Actress (That '70s Show)
March 12 John-Paul Lavoisier Actor (One Life to Live)
April 1 Randy Orton WWE wrestler
April 14 Claire Coffee Actress
June 20 Tika Sumpter Singer, actress
July 10 Jessica Simpson
July 18 Kristen Bell Actress
August 26 Macaulay Culkin Actor
October 13 Ashanti Singer and actress
October 17 Justin Shenkarow Voice actor (Harold Berman on Hey Arnold!)
November 12 Ryan Gosling Actor (Young Hercules)
December 3 Jenna Dewan Tatum Dancer and actress (American Horror Story)
December 18 Christina Aguilera Singer and child actress (Mickey Mouse Club)

Deaths

Date Name Age Notability
January 29 Jimmy Durante 86 Actor (The Jimmy Durante Show)
February 13 David Janssen 48 Actor (The Fugitive, Harry O, O'Hara, U.S. Treasury)
February 27 George Tobias 78 Actor (Abner Kravitz on Bewitched)
March 5 Jay Silverheels 67 Actor (Tonto on The Lone Ranger)
April 29 Alfred Hitchcock 80 Film director, host of (Alfred Hitchcock Presents)
August 14 Dorothy Stratten 20 Actress, (Playboy) model
September 12 Lillian Randolph 81 Actress (Amos 'n' Andy)
November 7 Steve McQueen 50 Actor (Josh Randall on Wanted: Dead or Alive)
December 8 John Lennon 40 Musician (The Beatles), co-hosted (The Mike Douglas Show) for a week

References

  1. ↑ Gannon, Jack. 1981. Deaf Heritage–A Narrative History of Deaf America, Silver Spring, MD: National Association of the Deaf, pp. 384–387 (PDF)